A love once remembered
by sectimsempra
Summary: A gypsy captured, a werewolf discovered, and a past waiting to catch up. What will happen between Adrianna and Vlad? Can their love survive the curse that has killed her family? Or will it get her too?


A shrill scream rent the air. Adrianna shot up like and arrow and reached for her knife that she always had by her side. It was purely for self-defense. She had had a little problem with the lads in the camp trying to take advantage of her. One of them still avoided her like the plague even though that had been over 3 years ago when she'd been a 16 year old. Oddly enough, she was the oldest gypsy girl that had not tied the knot yet.

She darted out of her tent just as someone was coming in. Whoever it was reached for her, but she dodged it. She had always been blind as far as she knew, so all of her other senses had had to become more sensitive. She heard the slightest movement from her immediate left and instinctively ducked. Her knife flashed out and she felt it sink into flesh. A hiss of pain greeted her efforts. She was too slow in ducking and the arm caught her in the temple. She lost consciousness.

"Got another one. She's a little hellcat, this one is," Jacovic remarked as he shoved a girl in amongst the other prisoners.

"Is she now?" the leader asked glancing at the woman sprawled unconscious on the ground. She looked rather small and delicate to him. A nasty purplish bruise was forming on the side of her head, "Doesn't look very dangerous to me,"

In answer Jacovic held out his arm where a nasty looking gash stretched from his wrist to his elbow. It looked like it was going to be infected pretty soon. "She sliced my arm open with a knife,"

Dracula smirked faintly. Jacovic was one of those idiot humans who thought they were going to be rewarded with immortality. In reality, he was probably going to be food for one of the other vampires he was serving.

"Put her with the rest," he instructed as he turned away from the man. He was beginning to feel the effects of being on the road so much. He had not seen his castle in 8 long years. This was to be one of his last raids. He was grateful for this.

Adrianna slowly woke up. She blinked several times and acted pretty much like a young woman who was being held captive would do. She listened carefully and looked to where noise was. She even managed a decently frightened expression.

"She's awake," a male voice said.

Adrianna looked to the source of the voice.

Another voice joined the first voice. "How many dead?"

The first replied, "Theirs or ours?"

"Theirs,"

"Nineteen,"

"Ours?"

"Twenty-six,"

"You mean to say, that a bunch of gypsies managed to kill twenty-six of us and they weren't even properly armed?" the second growled angrily. Adrianna shivered slightly at the voice of the second. It was one of those that was capable of seducing a nine hundred year old hag who swung the other way.

"They knew what we were," the first voice said quietly.

"Did they?" the second said coldly.

She heard him step right in front of her. He twisted a hand in her hair eliciting a cry of pain from her.

"Leave her alone," a voice snarled at him. She recognized it as Rodriguez.

"Or you'll what?" the second said coldly while twisting her hair off her scalp.

"Let her go monster!" Rod screamed.

"Gentleman, turn the men, the women are for your sport," the second said.

A cry of rage came from Rod as he broke from his ropes and sprang at Dracula. Dracula smirked slightly as he walked off into the forest dragging Adrianna in tow. As soon as they were out of sight of the others, he turned to the young man who was coming at him in a rage. Dracula stared him straight in the eyes and he stilled.

"You are a brave young man," he hissed softly, "I need more vampires like you," He dropped Adrianna and went for Rod in all his hellbeastly glory. A scream of pain came from Rod.

"Sorry Rod," Adrianna breathed. She crawled away. She leaned against a tree and with a bit of wriggling had her hands in front of her. She went to work at the knot with her teeth. Within a minute, she had her hands free. She took off away from the various whimpers, cries, groans, and sucking sounds. She stumbled over tree roots, branches, rocks, and other assorted forms of nature.

Dracula dragged the pretty young thing away from the camp where his men were at work. He was well aware of the young man following him. He was actually leading him away from the camp so he could turn him in private. The boy was brave, and he seemed courteous to women judging from the fact he was following Dracula with the intent of killing him.

He dropped the girl and turned to the boy. "You are a brave young man," he hissed in the boys ear, "I need more vampires like that. This won't hurt a bit," he promised. Dracula looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging, "Who am I kidding? This will hurt a lot," He morphed into his hellbeast form and attacked the boy. His fangs slid into the boy's neck with the greatest of ease. He began drinking the blood. Once he had almost drained the boy dry, he morphed back to human form and regarded the lad. Without a moment's hesitation, he bit into his wrist and allowed some of it to drip into his mouth.

Dracula knelt by his side and lightly touched his forehead. "After you have rested and fed, come to castle Dracula," he ordered. He stood up and realized the girl was gone. He found a piece of rope and smiled faintly.

Adrianna heard a sound coming after her and pushed more speed into her aching legs. She blindly ran, praying that he wouldn't catch up with her. A faint sound rose to her ears. It took her a bit of time to register the sound. Too late she noticed the sound of water…Below her. She tumbled over the edge. It took all her willpower not scream as she flailed about. A scream would alert someone to her predicament. She would rather die than get fed on by a bloodsucker.

She landed with a loud thud on her stomach. With a grunt, she realized she'd landed on what felt like sand. "That's gonna leave a mark," she muttered as she pushed herself up. She was bruised up a bit. Adrianna winced a bit as she put weight on her ankle. "Great," she muttered, "A sprained ankle," She hobbled along, being very careful to stay away from the water. All the while running a hand along the rock wall to see if there was any place to climb up. It wasn't that steep or she'd be a lot more injured. At last, she found what she was looking for. Carefully, she began to climb so as not to fall off. After about half an hour of climbing, she made it to the top. She paused to get her bearings before setting out.

A plan began formulating in her mind to get as far away as possible. She crept back towards the camp where the vampires were.

Dracula tracked her to the cliff. She had obviously gone over, but had evidently not sustained lasting injuries because she wasn't down there. He flew down the cliff face and lighted where she had fallen. He began following her scent. Three fourths of a mile along he found where she'd scaled the wall. He flew up it only to discover that she was foolishly heading back to the camp. This amused him greatly.

"I hope she isn't expecting to find safety there," he muttered to himself before transforming and flying after her.

Adrianna had made her way back to camp. She was not too terribly surprised to find that the vampires hadn't left. She crept around the edge until she came to where the horses were tethered. Adrianna found hers and untied him. Like most gypsies, her horse was not gelded. She led him away from the encampment before slinging on to his back. "I shall need your eyes, Screamer," she breathed in his ear while scratching behind the other, "take me where they cannot find me,"

With a snort, he broke off into a canter through the forest. "Softly," she whispered, "we do not want to be heard,"

They broke out of the forest and he broke into a gallop in earnest. At that moment she heard the sound of other hooves. Her blood ran cold. "Faster, Screamer, faster," she breathed as she leaned in closer to him. The other hooves gradually fell behind. Screamer did not stop however, he sensed something she did not and put even more length into his stride.

Dracula was not pleased when he returned to find that the girl had stolen a horse from under his men's nose while they were busy fooling around. Not happy at all. "Why did you permit her to escape? She has a heartbeat and comes wandering back here and none of you noticed!" he growled angrily, "What's more, she stole a horse and goes galloping out of here. WHY?!" he thundered. Silence greeted his question. There were shrugs, mutters, and finally someone said, "I don't know,"

"You don't know?" Dracula asked with a dangerous look in his face, "Then I suggest you do some soul searching and come up with a reason before I get back, or else I am going to castrate every one of you. Or perhaps I'll let the prisoners do it," he muttered the last bit more as an afterthought.

With one last glare he turned, morphed, and took off after her.

Van Helsing was riding along minding his own business when a large chocolate colored fresian galloped out in front of him as if hell itself was on its hooves. He urged his own into a gallop after the other stallion. Sadly, the other stallion was a lot faster than his. It did not take long for him to figure out why the stallion was galloping like hell itself was on its hooves. A large thing suddenly flew out of the trees after the stallion. He urged his stallion faster and gave a shout.

"Hey demon thingy," he called out.

The thing turned midair and gradually landed while shifting back to human. "Hello Gabriel," his former best friend greeted him.

Van Helsing stared in shocked horror. "You're dead. I killed you, you're supposed to be dead,"

Dracula smirked evilly, "Do I look dead to you?" he asked as he circled around Van Helsing. "After you so kindly killed me, I was resurrected as a vampire,"

"I am sorry," Van Helsing muttered, "The Order ordered me to because you had drifted from our ways,"

"The Order are fools. They kill what does not need to be killed and let live what does," Dracula retorted.

"Like you?" Van Helsing growled, "Do you think you should have lived?"

"Doubtlessly not," Dracula replied, "Even I admit what I was doing was wrong, but some that they were ordering you to kill deserved to live, others that they left alone deserved to die,"

Van Helsing shook his head sadly, "We were once friends Dracula," he said quietly, "but you went to the dark side and I cannot, will not follow you there,"

"I hardly expect you to," Dracula retorted, "you are much too noble for that. All I asked for was peace from the meddling order to do as I please,"

"They would never grant you that," Van Helsing replied, "why did you quit,"

"I fell in love," Dracula said shortly, "Then they ordered you to kill her,"

"Audrey," Van Helsing breathed.

Dracula nodded sadly. "In the meantime, I have a gypsy to catch," he said before transforming and taking off after the girl.

Van Helsing stood there for a moment before realizing he probably should've killed Dracula. He shook himself out of his thoughts and mounted his stallion before taking off after the two. He couldn't quite bring himself to kill his best friend again, but he could save whoever he was after.

Screamer was tiring. This Adrianna sensed what with the slowing stride and the labored breathing. She slowed him down to a trot. "Rest Screamer," she said quietly, "rest and eat," Screamers ears pricked up and he immediately set about grazing what little grass he could scrounge up.

A wooshing sound alerted both of them. "Don't bother trying," a voice said coldly. Adrianna could tell just by listening to him that he was not pleased. Screamer was snorting and prancing around. "Whoa boy," she breathed, "calm down,"

Hands wrapped around her waist and tried to pull her off. Screamer took this as his cue to start acting like an untried colt and letting the whole world know why his name was Screamer. He began bucking, kicking, and letting out shrill, challenging, screams. Adrianna clung to his mane for all that she was worth. "Screamer," she patronized sharply, "behave yourself," she said sharply. It took a few more commands to get him to a semi-calm state.

Dracula was impressed as he watched the beautiful gypsy calm the stallion into submission. He knew of very few people who could do that. She was obviously close to the stallion, which looked to Dracula like good horseflesh. (I'm not talking about eating here)

"Easy boy," she crooned as she slid off his back. She walked around in front of him and began muttering nonsense and scratching behind his ears and his chin. "Act civilized, Screamer," she murmured into his ear

She turned around when a slight sound came from the vampire behind her. She wished more than ever that she still had her eyes. Cold hands wrenched her arms behind her back to tie them up just as a voice interrupted.

"Let her go Dracula,"

Dracula let out a noise of disgust as he turned around to face Van Helsing. "You cannot save everyone Van Helsing," he remarked, "She is mine,"

Van Helsing aimed a piece of wood at his heart. "Let her go," he repeated.

Dracula laughed, "or you'll what?" he snickered, "kill me? You've already done that Gabriel,"

Van Helsing threw the stake. It hit right where he aimed at. Dracula smirked before yanking it out. "Did I mention I'm the king of the vampires?" he asked.

"You conveniently left that out,"

"Did I? I'm terribly sorry about that,"

Adrianna used this as her chance to run for the hills. As she ran, she let out a whistle for Screamer to follow. Before he could catch up with her, she ran into something. It felt like a brick wall except for the fact that whatever it was, it was ice cold. A finger touched her forehead and she knew no more.

Dracula smirked as he held the girl in his arms. She was spirited whoever she was. On a sudden inspiration, he decided to bring the stallion along for the ride. The horse she had was of a rare and difficult to find type. How she ended up with one was beyond him, but she must've been an important person in the gypsy camp to warrant one.

Seconds later the stallion and Dracula carrying the gypsy appeared in the courtyard. "Justin," he hollered.

A young man appeared immediately. "Yes master?" he asked politely after bowing slightly.

"Find a place for this horse in the stable. Keep him fed, watered, brushed, and happy," he ordered.

Justin stared briefly at the horse, before following Dracula's orders.

Dracula carried the gypsy up to a spare room and gently laid her down on the bed. He stared down at her for a moment before morphing and flying out the window to feed.

**How is it? Should I continue? Please review. Cc welcome, flames are not. Give me lots and lots of reviews and I'll be the happiest author alive. Until Chapter two, toodles. **


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